Pace of house price gains in Fraser Valley now nearly rivals Vancouver

Detached house prices in the Fraser Valley are up 26 per cent from a year earlier

House prices in the Fraser Valley have climbed at a much faster pace in recent months – almost as quickly as in the red-hot Vancouver-area real estate market.

The benchmark price of a detached house in the Valley hit $741,000 in March – up 26 per cent from $588,500 a year ago.

That’s a significant acceleration from last October, when the benchmark price was almost $100,000 lower at $649,200 and the gain for the previous 12 months was a mere 13 per cent.

The stats from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board include Surrey, North Delta and White Rock.

The rest of Metro Vancouver recorded a benchmark price of $1,342,000 for detached houses – a year-over-year gain of 27.4 per cent.

Benchmark house prices rose more than 33 per cent in North Delta, and by between 25 and 30 per cent in Langley, South Surrey/White Rock, Cloverdale and north Surrey.

The fastest year-over-year price gains for detached houses in Greater Vancouver were in Tsawwassen (up nearly 40 per cent) as well as Richmond, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, Ladner and east Burnaby (all over 30 per cent.)

Price gains for townhouses and apartments continue to be more gradual than for houses, up by around 15 per cent in the Fraser Valley and closer to 20 per cent in Greater Vancouver.

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board also reported a 62-per-cent surge in sales in March from a year earlier, and a 31-per-cent jump in new listings.

“This market is uncharted territory for Fraser Valley real estate,” FVREB president Charles Wiebe said. “March came and went at a break-neck record-setting pace. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The provincial government responded earlier this year to repeated calls to intervene in the real estate market with a higher property transfer tax on the priciest homes, and vows to curb undisclosed “shadow-flipping” by some realtors.